Hand held buckets are well known in many fields for carrying and transporting various liquid and solid substances. For example, paint and other construction materials are typically sold in such buckets. Such buckets typically have a cylindrical body with a closed bottom and a pivotal bail which the user grips and lifts to carry the bucket. The top of the body may be closed by a lid or cover which may subsequently be removed or opened to gain access to the contents of the bucket. Alternatively, the top of the body may simply be open without having any lid or cover.
Another common use of buckets is in the farm, ranch and pet industries. Buckets are used to carry and hold water or feed for livestock. For example, horses are often fed or watered from buckets that are hung from the walls of the stalls in which the horses are sheltered. In fact, specialized wall brackets are provided that allow the buckets to be properly and securely hung from a wall with the horse being unable to dislodge or knock the bucket off the wall. Obviously, in this application, the tops of the buckets will be open so that the horse will have access at will to the contents of the buckets.
For buckets designed to be hung from a bracket or nail located on a wall, the bail usually has an inverted central hook at the apex of the bail. If one is attempting to simply hang the bucket from a nail, this hook can be hooked onto the nail and helps center the bucket on the nail and helps prevent the bucket from sliding off the nail. When a specialized wall bracket is used, the hook forms a discontinuity or recess in the otherwise smooth and continuous arcuate shape of the bail. This recess allows a locking pin to be inserted down through the bracket and through the recess formed by the hook to help secure the bucket to the bracket.
Unfortunately, buckets used in many situations such as those outlined above are very heavy when filled, particularly when filled with animal feed or a large amount of water for a large animal, such as a horse. The bails used on such buckets are simply metal hoops having sufficient strength to allow a filled bucket to be picked up and carried without deforming the bail. However, this can be difficult to do since the relatively thin metallic bail presses into or cuts into the user's hand with a large amount of pressure. If the user is carrying the bucket a fair distance, or is repetitively carrying numerous buckets, this can be painful or damaging or both to the hands of the user.
Various grips have been applied to the bails of buckets to help make the task of carrying the bucket more comfortable. However, due to the discontinuity in the arcuate shape of the bail of a bucket having a central hook, such grips have not been applied to such bails over the central portion of the bail, including over the hook, where the grip is needed. It is difficult to apply a grip in this area of the bail.
In addition, even if a grip could be applied to the central portion of a bail having a central hook at its apex, the presence of the grip would interfere with the bucket being hung from a nail or bracket. For example, the extra thickness or material provided by the grip would take up most of the recess provided by the hook. This recess is needed to allow the locking pin on a conventional wall bracket to drop down through the recess. With a grip installed over the hook, the recess would no longer be large enough to receive the locking pin.
Accordingly, it would be an advance in the art to be able to use a grip on a pivotal bail of a bucket even when the bail has a central hook at its apex for hanging the bucket from a wall bracket.